by Charles Todd
“Do people believe that he’s guilty?”
“Some are glad of it. Others aren’t as certain.”
That was a surprise.
“Why are they uncertain?”
“They liked him. And his parrot.” She brought my teacup and the jug of milk and set it down in front of me.
“Where is the parrot now?”
“At the pub. But he is quiet now. He doesn’t talk very much. They did ask it where his master was.”
I hadn’t thought of that possibility.
“And where did it tell them to look?”
“It kept saying, ‘in hell, in hell, in hell.’”
I had to smile. I could picture Simon teaching it just that.
I ate my breakfast, then looked in on Eileen and Michael—to my surprise, he was sitting propped up against his pillows, his back to a chair. He looked terrible still, but his eyes were clear, not bright with fever.
They were glad to see me, asked me questions, and then let me go. I could tell that Michael was concerned for me, because he frowned, studying my face. “It can’t have been easy. Being arrested,” he said just as I rose to leave.
“No. I’m grateful to be set free. And I’m very happy to find you looking stronger.”
“Two nurses. I’m a lucky man.”
I smiled and left then. And ran right into Maeve Flynn, Eileen’s mother.
“I’m told they arrested that Traveler in your place,” she said quietly. “Is it true? Did he kill Fergus Kennedy?”
“I don’t know,” I said warily. “I’d rather believe he didn’t.”
“And why is that?”
“I can’t imagine why he would do such a thing. In England, the Travelers don’t have much to say about politics. They mind their own business.”
She nodded. “And so they do here as well. I simply can’t picture one being a British spy. And what’s more, I didn’t know Fergus Kennedy, but I find it difficult to believe London would send a spy to kill him just because of his paintings. Any memorial to the Rising will be a long time in coming. Surely he was no threat to peace.”
“Then why was he killed?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said thoughtfully. “It might have been personal.”
I couldn’t tell her what I knew. That Fergus Kennedy had seen Michael being taken away by boat.
We were standing in the back hall, speaking quietly. When Mrs. Flynn began to pound on the floor with her cane, Maeve glanced upward, then said, “I must go. Take care, Bess.”
Glad to be free at last, I walked out to the stables, looking for Terrence.
I wasn’t certain what I was going to say to him. But now that I couldn’t be sure where Simon was or how safe he was, I was going to have to depend on Terrence. The problem was, I had to tell him what I knew and who had told me. And even that would depend on what his mood was.
It was going to take a lot of diplomacy, either way. I didn’t find him in the barn or in the stables, and it was my turn to start to panic. We’d lost another day, we couldn’t afford to lose another—the Major could already be dead, for all I knew.
Then I heard one of the donkeys braying, and Terrence’s laugh. It was the first time I’d heard him really relax enough to laugh that way.
I hurried around the stable yard to the paddock where the donkeys were kept, and there Terrence was, his elbows leaning on the top of the fence, talking to the animals, and actually scratching one behind the ears.
“I wasn’t sure they were friendly,” I said, joining him at the fence.
“They generally are not. But I’ve known these since they were born.” He moved a little, and I reached out to scratch the rough coat, just behind the ear.
The donkey jerked his head away. And Terrence laughed again.
“He knows you’re English.”
“He can’t possibly,” I retorted, laughing too as the donkey turned his back. But the worry that was driving me must have come through, because it didn’t quite ring true.
Terrence turned to me. “Is it last night? Is that what’s troubling you?”
Here was my chance, and I wasn’t sure just what to say.
“Out with it. You’ll be better for it.”
But it wasn’t last night . . .
I told myself that I could face Matron and the doctors when I believed that a patient needed something more to keep him alive. How was this any different from trying to save the Major?
I said, “I’ve come into some information, Terrence. And I need help. I don’t know where else to turn.”
He considered me for a moment, then took my arm and led me to the far end of the paddock where we wouldn’t be overheard.
“The Major,” he said. “Do you know where he is? Did Michael tell you?”
I was afraid to put Michael in the middle. “I have to be careful about what I know. I shouldn’t have that information, you see.”
Rubbing his chin, he said, “All right.”
“I think he’s in the prehistoric fort of Dún Aonghasa. On Inishmore.”
His eyebrows went up. “Is he indeed?” Then he nodded. “That’s damned clever, in fact. We’ve searched miles in every direction. I even took a boat to the nearest islands. That explains why we’ve had no luck.”
“It may already be too late—still, I want to try to rescue him. I should have gone last night, but that was impossible—and I can’t go alone. I know how to use a revolver. I won’t be any trouble. But I need someone’s help. I’m not sure I could manage a boat alone, even if I could navigate it to this island.”
His mouth twisted in a grimace. “He’s the English army. Do you know what they did, after the Rising? The executions, the innocent people caught up and transported to England, the atrocities—”
“It wasn’t Major Dawson who took part in that,” I said staunchly. “You can’t blame him for what others did.”
He took a deep breath. “At the wedding Eileen had to have an English nurse, and Michael had to have an English officer. Fools! Both of them. None of this would have happened if she had had one of the local girls stand up with her. And he’d chosen Niall. Or someone from the village.” There was a savagery in his voice. “Is there no end to this?”
“Michael won’t go without the Major. But if we can bring him home, we can leave.”
“You do realize that it’s suicidal for the two of us to try this?”
“I was hoping I could find someone else. The Traveler, perhaps. He’s not a part of whatever is going—”
Terrence cut me short. “He’s being hunted as a murderer.”
“Yes, because you set the police on him.”
“I did it to get you out of that cell.”
We were beginning to shout at each other. I lowered my voice.
“Please, Terrence, will you help me? I can’t manage a boat across to the island—I don’t know the currents, I don’t know where to land it without betraying my presence. I don’t mind facing the men holding the Major, but it’s useless to try if I am going to fail straightaway.”
“Oh, bloody hell,” he said under his breath, but I heard him.
I knew what he was thinking, that the last thing he wanted to do was find himself involved in something that would draw attention to him. He’d risked coming home, he’d stayed for the wedding because of Eileen, and now I was asking him to take action that might well find him caught and tried and executed.
“We can’t let him die,” I said quietly. “I don’t want that on my conscience.”
“Do you have any idea where that mad Traveler might be?”
“I don’t,” I said honestly. “If I did, I wouldn’t have had to come to you.”
“We can’t trust Niall. We need another man.”
Simon had said the same thing—we needed someone else.
“I don’t know who to trust,” I replied. “But time is running out.”
“Yes, all right. We’ll go tonight. The nights are short, we’ll have to make it fast.”
“Do you know how to get to that island?”
“I used to sail over there. It’s an isolated place, they have their own ways. But a boy bent on trouble doesn’t think twice. Not that I did any harm. I’d walk up to the fort and eat my lunch there, knowing my mother didn’t have any idea where I was. I thought it clever of me.”
There was a sadness in his voice. A regret.
Shrugging it off, he said, “All right. Go back to the house. I’ll follow in a bit. And I’ll need to find a boat.”
I nodded, and walked back to the stables and then to the lawns. I wasn’t convinced that he would help, once he’d thought it over. It was rather crackbrained. Just as well my father didn’t know what I was planning. But I wished for Arthur and his aircraft. Another man.
For a moment I toyed with the possibility of asking Eileen to help, then discarded that idea almost immediately. She wasn’t used to getting herself out of trouble.
With a sigh, I stepped into the house and went up to my room.
I’d been honest with Terrence. I couldn’t simply leave the Major to his fate. I couldn’t have his death on my conscience. I had to try.
Chapter Eighteen
I went through my wardrobe to see what I might wear tonight other than skirts.
I needn’t have wondered.
When I came back from having lunch with the others, hoping to appear as normal as possible, I found a boy’s trousers, a heavy dark shirt and heavier jumper lying on the bed. There was even a flat cap, the kind so many Irishmen wore.
They were clean. I had no idea where Terrence had found them or what excuse he might have given for borrowing them. Or perhaps they were from trunks of his own outgrown clothes.
Locking my bedroom door, I tucked them out of sight and then sat down to clean my little revolver.
My only concern was that I didn’t have many bullets for it. I would have to be judicious in how I used them.
It wasn’t much in firepower, it was given to me for self-protection, not a battle. But I knew how to use it, and I could hit what I aimed for.
That done, I considered another problem.
If Terrence and I left and—God forbid—anything went wrong, someone ought to know.
But who to trust?
I considered leaving a note for Arthur, but if he couldn’t land, it did no good. And if someone else found it, that could cause considerable trouble.
I considered Eileen but again worried that she might not be able to keep such a secret if Michael was put in any danger. I considered Michael, as well, but he would do his best to talk me out of such a mad idea, and I didn’t want to risk another fever.
Maeve? Did I trust her? She didn’t share her mother-in-law’s rabid belief in the independence of Ireland at any cost. She wanted freedom from London as much as anyone, I thought, but she had a more sensible approach to achieving it.
I wasn’t certain at this stage that independence or even Home Rule was going to happen anytime soon, but I had a very troubling feeling that matters were going to escalate rather than slow down. London would take only so much disorder, and then send in more troops to enforce peace, and there was very likely to be worse bloodshed this time.
But turning my thoughts back to Maeve, I decided that she was the only real choice I had. She hated her mother-in-law too much to betray us, and she seemed to like me. How far she would go in protecting me was another question.
With a sigh, I got up, put my weapon away where it wouldn’t be easily discovered by someone coming into my room—Eileen’s room—either to search or to make more trouble for me. Even the Constable probably hadn’t bothered to look in one of Eileen’s hatboxes on the top of the armoire. Besides, I had a feeling he’d known exactly where to search.
I still didn’t know who had put those damaged paintings in my kit, but they had served their purpose with the police.
I went quietly out into the passage and to Maeve’s door, tapping lightly.
After a moment or two she answered.
“Bess,” she said, smiling. “I was just about to have a lie-down.”
“Oh—” I said, not expecting to find her busy. “I’ll come back later.”
“Of course not. Come in.” And she stepped aside. “Have you quite recovered from your ordeal, my dear? You look—distressed.”
I followed her into her sitting room and took the chair she offered me. I wasn’t ready to tell her why I had come, and so I said, “To be honest, I’m concerned for the Traveler, I do understand why Terrence told the Constable that he was to blame. Still, another innocent person in jail isn’t going to solve that murder.”
“He’s Irish, my dear, he knows the country. He’s probably in Dublin by now.”
But I didn’t think he was in Dublin. Simon wouldn’t leave me. Still, I could hardly tell Maeve Flynn that.
“I expect so,” I replied, but I could hear the doubt in my own voice, and I was sure she heard it as well.
“But it wasn’t the Traveler you came to talk to me about. What’s worrying you, Bess? Is it Michael? I thought he was looking much better this morning.”
“Actually, it’s the Major. He’s still missing. I—” I broke off. “Tonight, Terrence and I are going to take a boat and sail over to that island, Inishmore. I wanted someone to know, in the event something goes wrong. And I didn’t wish to worry Eileen.”
She looked horrified. “Bess—what do you mean, you and Terrence are going over? Is the Major there? Are you going to try to rescue him? My dear, it’s the height of folly. Promise me you’ll do no such thing!”
“There’s no one else to go. And I don’t trust that Constable. And I can’t just do nothing and let Ellis die.”
“You don’t believe that whoever is holding him will kill him?”
“Look what they did to Michael. He should have died. I think it’s because he wanted so much to marry Eileen that he survived. Why else would he come staggering into the church as he did? To find her?”
“And you feel that way about Ellis?”
“No, of course not. But Michael won’t leave without him, and he’s English, and I feel responsible somehow.” I remembered what I’d said to Terrence. “It’s a matter of conscience.”
“Yes, I do see that, but you can’t possibly hope—it’s madness!”
“I have to try.”
“But where did you get this information? How do you even know it’s accurate?”
I took a deep breath. “I can’t tell you how I know. And I don’t know if it’s accurate, but I must do something.”
“Go to the English garrison—”
“I was planning to go last night, and I was taken into custody instead. By the time I can convince someone that I know where Ellis is, another night will have passed. Can you imagine what he must be enduring? And when they are tired of that, they will kill him. I don’t like to think of him hoping help will come, and then, no help ever arrives.”
“I know you were in France during the worst of the war, Bess, but I still think you ought to speak to the authorities.”
I shook my head. “There isn’t time.” And then to lessen her worry, I added, “You do realize that Terrence and I might well discover that he’s been moved—or was never there? That this information is just rumor.”
She considered me. “How did you manage to convince Terrence to do this?”
“He promised my family to keep me safe, if I’d come for the wedding. I expect he never bargained for this sort of thing. But I must give him credit. As much as he didn’t like it, he didn’t want me to go alone. I’d have tried. The problem is, I don’t know the currents, or how to reach the best landing place on the island. And if the Major has been badly hurt, I can’t bring him back to the boat alone. I’d hoped to have someone else along, but there’s no one I could ask.”
Maeve said with resignation, “All right. Tell me what I need to know. And I’ll keep your secret. It’s imperative that someone knows.”
And so I
told her. “Terrence is finding a boat. I have a boy’s clothing to wear. And we’ll have to go as soon as it’s dark. I shall have to cry headache and go up early. Then slip out as soon as I can. I don’t know where I’m to meet Terrence, but he’ll let me know.”
“He’s an honorable man, Terrence. Very like his father. If he says he’ll take you, then he’ll do everything in his power to bring you back safely.” She was silent for a moment. “He went to Trinity, you know.”
I didn’t. But Trinity College in Dublin was the premier university in Ireland.
“What did he read?”
“The classics. I think he was hoping to become a lawyer. He’d have been a good one. Another life changed forever by the need to free Ireland.”
I rose. “Thank you for listening to me. And thank you for keeping my secret. I feel much better about going now.”
“I wish I could discourage you. I urge you to consider what you’re about to do, Bess. I’d be sick with worry if it were Eileen planning such a thing. And I worry about you as well.”
“I know. That’s why I felt I could trust you. Have your nap. I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“On the contrary. I shan’t sleep now or tonight. Will you let me know you are safe? I don’t care how late it is—just tap at my door. I’ll hear it.”
“I promise.” As she rose to walk with me to the door, I turned and put my arms around her. “My mother would have liked to meet you,” I said.
“Perhaps one day, I’ll meet her. Under happier circumstances.”
I left her then, and went out to walk under the trees.
I didn’t think I’d lose my courage. I wasn’t my father’s daughter for nothing. But I had to be realistic with myself. I wasn’t sure just what was going to happen.
Later, I looked in on Michael, sat and talked with Eileen even after he’d dropped into a light sleep.
“He wants to walk outside tomorrow,” she told me. “He says he’s strong enough.”
“That’s good,” I told her. “He needs the fresh air. And a little exercise will help his appetite.”
It hadn’t been very good, although he made every effort to finish his food.